Improvement in folding cots



UNITED STATES;

PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES E. DEANE, 0E 'PEOELA ILLINOIS.

`IMPROVEMENTV IN FOLDINGCOTS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 155,794, dated October 13, 1874 application filed April 23, 1874. v

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES H. DEANE, of the city of Peoria, in the county of Peoria, in the State of Illinois, have invented au Improvement in Folding Cots 5 and do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear,and exact description thereof, reference being had to the annexed drawings making a part of p this specification, in which like letters of refother available spaces where there may be a scarcity of better accommodations. This consists in providing a series of square upright frames, about fourteen feet long and seven high, composed of wood or iron rods. If of wood the pieces of the frame may be about two and a half inches square, properly braced, and provided with horizontal cross-pieces, to which the cots are hinged. The frames are hinged together parallel with each other, so that the distance between each will be wide enough to contain oneor two cots, and the hinges may be made of metal strips, jointed together half way between each frame, and pivoted, each strip, to its respective frame at the top and bottom, so that the frames may shut together compactly, vertically, when the cots are turned up, and be stowed away when not in use. To the cross horizontal bars or to the uprights are hinged one or morecotframes, in such a manner as to fold them upward or downward within the plane of their respective frames, vertically, so that none of them will interfere with the closing together of the frames when put away. The cots are provided with the usual webbing and sacking, and with legs or supports made to fold within the cot-frame, or to be let fall into a notch or other receptacles in the large frame, in the manner of a bracket.

Each large frame is provided with a canvas or other screen, stretched from side to side and from top to bottom, and a screen of the same kind may extend from frame to frame up the middle, so as to form compartments right and left of each frame for greater privacy.

One of the forms in which I construct this folding compartment for cots is as follows, and as represented in the drawings, where A A are the vertical frames, each connected and hinged together parallel to the next by the jointed strips a a at top and bottom 5 B B, the canvas screens, stretched upon each frame; O O, the cross-screens, which form a divisional wall between the cots on the right and those on the left end of a frame, D D, the cots, each hinged at either end to one of the uprights A A A at the center and end frame, so as t0 fold upward vertically within the same, with their legs e within the cot-frame. rlhe whole may b e provided with a hanging curtain or screen, covering the outer end of each compartment, if necessary, and this will not interfere with the proper closing up of the apparatus, nor would a canopy or .curtain covering the compartments above do so either. Hooks d d are used to lock the frames together when shut compactly, that the whole may be readily handled and put away when not in use. The frames may be provided with casters under each vertical piece A A A of each frame.

The operation of this invention is as follows: rlhe frames A A arevshut compactly together to occupy as little space as possible when not wanted, the cots D folding up within their respective frames, the whole -being fastened by the hooks d d at the end of frames. To open them for use two persons can readily draw the frames apart, the elbow joints a a forming for them a sufficient support to keep them parallel. rlhe act of drawing them apart also stretches the intermediate screens C C. The cots D D vare now opened out horizontally, and their legs c c let fall, and the addition of a spread for each cot is all that is necessary for forming a comfortable series of sleeping compartments, free from observation, and for temporary use where such accommodation may be useful, as in hotels, cars, steamboats,`

and other vessels. These may be constructed in single compartments or as many as may be In testimony that I claim the foregoing secnecessary. l tional compartment for'oots, 85o., I have here- What I claim as my invention isunto set my hand this 8th day of April7 A. D. The combination of the folding parallel 187 4.

frames A A, provided with the hinged cots D, CHARLES H. DEANE.

having legs e. screens B and. C, and hinged Witnesses:

strips a, constructed and arranged to operate H. W. WELLS,

substantially as and for the purposes Set forth. JAMES M. MORSE. 

